In The End
by Pure Yet Dark
Summary: Arthur is tired. The land he has represented for eons is slowly sinking into the sea and his people, those who he is based off of, are gone. His time is done and all his former allies, and friends have forgotten the man slowly sinking into the unforgiving depths except one. He never thought he would be able to call her a friend but in the end she really was his best friend.


In the End

Summery- Arthur is tired. The land he has represented for eons is slowly sinking into the sea and his people, those who he is based off of, are gone. His time is done and all his former allies, and friends have forgotten the man slowly sinking into the unforgiving depths except one. He never thought he would be able to call her a friend but in the end she really was his best friend.

* * *

_I tried so hard_

_And got so far_

_But in the end_

_It doesn't even matter_

_In The End- Linkin Park_

There in the center of what used to be the town of London, England, stood one man surrounded by the salty spray of water upon his final standing place. His shaggy blond hair was filled with the grime of the salt spray and his clothes were soaked and in tatters from the number of years he had been standing in that exact spot waiting. His once mischievous emerald green eyes that gave away his every thought and feeling no matter how his face hid it were glazed over in exhaustion and acceptance. He was alone, he was tired, and he was ready for it to end. Arthur Kirkland, the representation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was soon to be no more.

He supposed that it was best that he left this way, with no one there to see his form melt away as his last square foot of land sank into the sea leaving nothing of him above water, effectively ending his long, and eventful life. He supposed that he was one of the unlucky ones, most countries he knew that had died, died in battle without thought of what was happening to their land, their people just the heat of battle. Sure Arthur had died before, but he always came back and within a year he was back to his old self but now this was his true end, he wouldn't wake up again, his time was gone. He had know it was when the first part of his land tumbled into the sea. He had known it when his allies had come up empty of ways to stop his descent. He had know when the last of his people left the land over a hundred years ago. He knew. She knew. She knew before he did.

The young woman who had barged her way into his life when he was still small enough to be called a child but had been in being for centuries. She had been a witness to his very first battle against his brothers and every battle after. She just watched, she did not intervene and at first he didn't know that she was there. It was not until the days of King Arthur, his namesake that she introduced herself. She introduced herself as Rashel, as a normal human and he had treated her as such, ignoring the gut feeling that she was something more. He paid for his mistake though when he ignored her warning of impending chaos, that Arthur would soon be lost and that the kingdom would fall. She was right though and soon, the age of Camelot was at an end.

She disappeared some time during the chaos but soon after he met France and he forgot about her until the end of the pirate era where she appeared on his ship as he waited for his own Navy to arrest him and his crew. She was with a small child then, which he had mistaken for a slave until the child called Rashel her sister. Rashel didn't talk to him about terrible thing to come in fact she didn't speak at all, instead her sister, who was only called Peace, spoke about a time where he would be surrounded by happiness with a bittersweet end. They stayed on his ship for the night, and then in the morning they were gone and his crew was picked up and he was ordered to the new world where he would then meet little America. It had been the happiest he had ever been.

The little girl had been correct though, the revolutionary war had been a bittersweet end to his time of being a fatherly figure in America's life. He was angry of course but a small part of him couldn't help but feel proud of the new country. He had done what he believed to be right, even with the huge amount of opposition, and he had won. He was proud and nothing could change that, even the sting of defeat from a younger country.

Time continued to pass, his empire died, and he was allowed to mellow out a bit. He carried on with his life as a country, making allies, making alliances, and generally just spending time by himself. He learned a lot about himself in that time, he learned that cooking required the ability to pay attention to the recipe, he learned that he had little patience with cooking and quickly gave it up, he learned that he had an odd fascination with romance novels and he learned that he wasn't the only to have met the odd girl named Rashel.

Sometimes they just met her in passing, an odd girl who would warn them about an event about to happen, forgotten until the event had come to pass when she would suddenly pop into their heads. Sometimes they had known each other for years and years when one day she would look at them sadly, say some event is going to happen then disappear into the nearest crowd. In one case, she had them watching over the young child in her care while she disappeared to who knows where. Collectively they all called Rashel, Chaos, at least until the young child, Peace told them that she was actually called Dystopia the personification of chaotic society. They were scared of her, all of the countries were. She was chaos, the more chaos the stronger she was. War, plagues, and starvation strengthened her instead of weakened her like it did them. She was fascinated with Arthur.

At first Arthur shunned the girl like the others did, after all, all the tragic events happened after she told them of them. It made sense to keep her away from them so they could avoid her wrath as chaos. Then, when the Great War started, without a single sighting of Dystopia, Arthur realized, she had no more control over the situation then they did. Chaos after all, is an uncontrollable force that was bound to happen whether or not it was wanted or not. She was just it's messenger, not the ruler of it. Arthur tried to explain this to the others, but they refused to listen to him, or Peace for the little girl was well like by all of the countries. They stubbornly believed that Dystopia was the cause of all of their problems and continued to shun her.

Arthur didn't search her out, but he welcomed the girl whenever she arrived, and found that she did cause a bit of chaos, but in the form of harmless things. Moving his things around from where he had put them, hiding his keys, taking all of his left shoes. Not much more than a bit of fun, like the tricky fey. She meant them no harm, she was just lonely and a bit of a jokester. Seeing as he was also lonely and had an alright temper Arthur and Rashel had a bit of an understanding and kept each other from getting too lonely.

As the years went by, Rashel disappeared often for decades at a time, wandering the planet and watching as it changed over time. Arthur, during these times, pretended that she didn't exist, if only to put the other countries at ease. Peace had disappeared and no one had seen her for centuries most assumed her dead like the countries of old. Arthur knew that she traveled with her sister when she disappeared. He found it odd that two girls that were born the opposite of each other were closer than any other pair of sisters he had encountered but put it down to the fact that opposites were just on either side of a gray line and could easily become the other.

The sound of a motor boat drew the old weathered nation out of his thoughts, a faint smiling crossing his lips at the sound. Now a days everything was done with hovercraft, and very few used the old types of motors, except those with money to show off, but he knew this boat. Arthur watched as the glob of black on the horizon slowly became the shape of a boat and showed it's single passenger, Dystopia, Rashel, his final friend.

"Hello Rashel, did you have a nice crossing?" Arthur asked, his voice hoarse and raspy with disuse as the boats engine stopped and it's rider smiled sadly at him, her pitch black hair chopped in a pixie style, quite unlike the long braid it had been in the last time she had visited him. "Today's the day isn't dear friend?"

"Yes Arthur it is." Rashel whispered pulling the wet nation into a hug over the side of the boat. She pulled away, tears into her eyes. "Any moment now, and you'll be gone. Are you ready for it?" She asked, clutching his hand tightly in her own pale one. Arthur patted her shoulder, a thoughtful look in his eyes.

"To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure." He quoted, as Rashel let out a sob like laugh. "Do not pity me Rashel, do not let my death cause your own. You're my best friend you know. You always have been, I just didn't realize it until now." Arthur told the woman who had been with him in his most desperate times. The woman he had trusted with his deepest secret and all of his darkest and lightest wishes. She had not forgotten the man standing in the middle of the sea, and now she was here with him as he slowly started to fade away from this world.

"You've been mine to Arthur, ever since I first saw you I knew. I knew you would be a great man, I knew you'd have to go through all you did to get there. I knew how you'd end, and I didn't want you to end alone. You deserve a better ending than this Arthur. You do, you really, really do." Rashel told him, tears washing down her face as she watched the kind gentleman, the strong country, and her best friend rolled into one disappear for good.

"Remember Rashel, I'll never truly leave you. I'll still be alive through you, even as I slip away. You are my best friend, tell your sister I said goodbye." Arthur choked out squeezing Rashel's hand one last time. "Goodbye Rashel, keep the world on it's toes for me." Arthur said as the waves over took the final bit of land and he faded away into the wind.

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AN: I'm crying now, really I am. That's my first time actually writing down a death scene and meh! :'(

Alright, sorry I'm done with the feels over load. I hope you enjoyed my little depressing one shot and enjoyed how I integrated Dystopia/Rashel and Peace into the story and Arthur's interactions with the both of them. The quote is from Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone made by Albus Dumbledore who I do not own! I just thought it would be a good quote to put there. Please let me know what you think!


End file.
